I continue to assert that my dogs are not only my loyal cute canine campions; they’re also my teachers. They have taught me much. Before I can share the latest and greatest, I first have to offer a little background. 🙂

For the first seven years of Rufus’ life we worked closely with a Hollywood dog trainer, and he helped me to really understand the minds of our dogs. One philosophy he convinced me to adopt was, “it’s never their fault.” And, I truly believe it’s never their fault.

For example, if the a dog pees or poops in the house, it’s not their fault, it’s mine. I’m the one who controls want goes in so I naturally have some control over when it’ll come out. I believe if I stay present and aware of my pups, and listen to them, then I won’t miss the cues and hints, when they need to go outside to pee and poop (after they’re fully housebroken). I believe accidents (outside sickness and old age) occur when responsible dog guardians get too busy and ignore our precious pups. I’m not suggesting we intentionally forget about them, but sometimes life can get busy fast, and it often times comes at the cost of happy hound dogs — and a rug or two, maybe. 🙂

Point: I can’t always control my dogs and what they will do and when they’ll do it, but I do have control over how I’ll react and what preemptive actions I can take to ensure I get the results I want. This has been a golden lesson learned for me. 🙂

This past Friday, I was on the phone and in the process of ordering some new equipment, and in the middle of the transaction, I was asked to be placed on hold while she secured our CFO’s approval for the purchase. After being on hold for a few minutes, the rep comes back on the phone and said, “He has declined the purchase.”

Wow. My initial biological reaction was to be upset. In my mind, I initially thought, does he not know how long I’ve been on hold attempting to make this purchase. Does he not know that I’ve already secured approval for our President!? And, then it hit me. It’s never their fault. And to answer my own questions, no. No he didn’t know how long I was on hold nor did he know that I had already received approval from our President. How could he, I hadn’t told him?!? I hadn’t given him the heads up. I had not taken any action to make him aware of what I was doing before, and therefore, he reacted accordingly. #FacePalm I quickly realized, I can’t be mad at our CFO. I missed up, it was my fault. 🙂

So I quickly shrugged it off, and accepted full responsibility and accountability for my part in the equation. This life lesson has been taught to me by my dogs and all of our years together. It’s one thing to accept and acknowledge this philosophy, but having dogs for these last 14 years has given many occasions to actually apply and practice this tried and true philosophy (for me). Amazing. ❤